Fighting the legal battles of Russians in Goa

Dec 23 2013

Alexandra Katz

specially for RIR

Vikram Varma. Source: Alexandra Katz

Vikram Varma, a well-known advocate has been representing many Russians in Goan courts. In this exclusive interview, he talks about wrong impressions created by the media and the changing nature of cases involving Russian citizens.

After spending most of his life and carrier in
Delhi, advocate Vikram Varma moved to Goa with his family to enjoy a more
peaceful life. In spite of yoga in the mornings and the “sussegado” lifestyle
of Goa, his professional life turned out to be as busy in Goa as it was in
Delhi. Thanks to old connections with the Russian Embassy in Delhi, since 2007
Vikram Varma has been appointed by Russian Consulate to assist cases involving
Russians in Goa. In this exclusive interview, he talks to RIR about the legal
issues Russians face in the state.

Is
public opinion still influenced by old stories about the “Russian mafia”
invading North Goa?

It was in 2007 when I took up this matter about
the media reports that Russians in Goa were involved in Mafia-like activities,
on the request of the Russian Consulate who I hold in high respect. We had a
situation when false information was given by some local persons and a couple
of police officers that the Russian mafia had taken over Morjim and that the
area had become difficult for locals to live in. The idea of the Russian mafia
taking over Morjim was taken up by media with all TV channels and newspapers,
from national to local level doing multiple reports.

When we started investigating the matter we
found out that a number of restaurants had additional menus which were in
Russian, but to my mind it’s just a way for the owners to communicate with the
Russian Tourists who did not speak English or Konkani, it was a natural
commercial step. We also found out that in one incident, several young Indian
boys, not locals but from Karnataka, were thrown out of one of the restaurants
owned by a Russian with Indian partners, for misbehaving with Russian girls.
The case was clearly due to a difference in cultures.

It’s
not only the menus in Russian or the property deals Russians are blamed for,
but mainly the prostitution and drugs…

Yes,
in 2008-2009 there was a lot of noise about narcotics and prostitution done by
Russians in Goa. There was a serious investigation conducted and we found out
that narcotics were controlled not by Russians but by a few local policemen
from anti-narcotic cell. Then the Goa police gathered the evidence and arrested
eight police officers from the Narcotic Cell including the senior inspector in
charge. That was a big step for Goa police to arrest an officer of their own
department. It just means that the evidence was so clear that they had no
choice but to arrest these people.

Prostitution
is another thing. We analyzed information on all the girls arrested in Goa on
the charges of prostitution. There were no Russian girls, till last year. All
the girls were either from Ukraine or Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, who had been
trapped by Indian prostitution chains through internet advertising, offering
attractive jobs with good salaries and paid accommodation.

Even before rape became a much-talked
about issue in India after the horrible case in Delhi there were numerous
reports of sexual abuse of Russian women in Goa, and even deaths. Were all these cases investigated thoroughly?

There
were a few cases with Russian girls beaten up badly and sexually abused, with
their passports taken by criminals who then informed the police that girls were
roaming around without passports and visas. There was large number of deaths
from 2006 onwards. But the standard procedure police followed in most of the
cases was to declare it as a case of unnatural death or drug overdose.

For
example, the case of Elena Sukhanova who died in 2009. She was molested, thrown
on the rail tracks near Thivim station, her body chopped into pieces. The
police claimed that she went to a disco at 2 am in Baga and 4 am her body was
found chopped on the Railway Tracks near the Thivim station 20 kilometers from
the disco. According to police officer investigating the crime, she had fallen
down from the train while it was moving. In fact there was no reason for her to
be in any train as her passport and money was all in her hotel room. I could
not believe that. But investigating officer of the case closed the case saying
it was an accidental death.

Parents
of dead victims can approach the authorities to re-investigate a case, but this
has never happened with any Russian’s deaths till now.

Should girls be also blamed for
getting into wrong situations or mingling in wrong circles?

Many
girls coming here with pink glasses become perfect victims for narcotic gangs.
Normally when any of us go to another country there is a strong sense of trust.
I found that a lot of young Russian girls are completely trusting local boys.
There are a lot of good boys in Goa but sometimes the criminals make all
efforts to get friendly with the Russian girls. There were a number of
incidents where the boys got friendly with a girl, told her they knew important
people, told her to come to the beach shack and eat whatever she wants without
paying... Later she will be asked to accompany a boy to South Goa or even to
Nepal not knowing that the boy is carrying some narcotics, but she anyway
thinks she is having a very adventurous life. When her visa expires the boy
would tell her that he knows people in the home ministry, she would hand over
the passport to him. After that the control of her life shifts to the criminals
and in any situation if she does not agree with instructions then the result
has been sexual abuse, beating up, police custody, and deportation.

Related:

Do you think dressing up more
conservatively can help Russian girls stay safer?

See… you cannot relate the fact of sexual abuse
to the way someone is dressed. Every man, woman or child has a legal right to
dress the way they want to, when they go to the beach or a party. Dress codes
are normally for special establishments.

We had an incident when a nine-year old Russian
girl was sexually abused in Arambol in 2009. There was outrage in the Indian
Parliament because one Member of Parliament tried to voice the argument that
“she was not dressed properly”. A nine year old girl? Nonsense. We had to
petition the government very seriously in that case to admit that the problem
was in the mindset, and not the dressing. The criminals were arrested and
brought to trial.

Russians commit crimes too,
it’s a fact. What kind of crimes are you dealing with more often?

There
are lots of technical crimes involving Russians, mostly related to overstay.
Someone has lost his passport, somebody had a medical condition few days before
the visa expired. We have about 14-15 such cases a season.

There
were also a few cases where people did not lose passports but actually threw
them. These all were mainly psychiatric cases. We had to admit these people to
the Institute of Psychiatric and Human Behaviour (IPHB)
where the doctors had to provide them complete treatment for their mental
condition after which we helped them to return to their homes in Russia.

How can you help in such cases
when one has lost a passport or the visa has expired?

We
need to obtain an exit visa, the permission to leave the country. And we have
to record the background of the case for that, what were the circumstances, why
the person has overstayed his or her visa, we have to convince the government.
Earlier all the clearances had to be taken from the Home Ministry, now it’s the
responsibility of FRRO.

It is
important to understand that the legal system in India is very slow and all
legal problems are best resolved if handled immediately, before the charges are
brought, as after that the person has to go through a legal process which can
take even five years or more. If we resolve the matter at the earlier stage, the
person can get out within a month if it is not a serious crime, of course. We
have a very vibrant and helpful team at the Russian Consulate in Mumbai and I
do hope that all Russian Citizens in Goa approach them for advice and
assistance in case of any serious legal problem as soon as it happens.